“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:1–11)

You may never have heard of Simon the Stylite. Simon the Stylite lived from 390 to 459. What he is known for is being an extreme example of what we call asceticism. Ascetics believe the Christian life is to be lived with a harsh severity to the body, forgoing food, sleep or comfort, and often being isolated from others. They believed they could kill sin and draw closer to God by these methods.

Simon is a famous example, because he lived out his asceticism by living on a 1 square-metre platform up on a pillar 15 metres up for 36 years. It’s recorded that small boys from the nearby village would climb up the pillar and give him parcels of flat bread and goats’ milk. There he stayed, supposedly praying, and living in discomfort for 36 years. Simon the Stylite is venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Simon and his asceticism represent one approach to what we call Christian spirituality.

Christian spirituality is just a term we use to mean how the Christian life is to be lived out, what it means to know and experience God, what it is to worship and pray, and grow. Asceticism is one very incorrect version of Christian spirituality, which Paul had already corrected in the book of Colossians. Just as there are many churches, and many theologies, there are many spiritualities.

Besides asceticism, there is mysticism, which teaches we need to empty our minds, and experience a kind of mindless melding into God. There is quietism, which teaches complete passivity: let go and let God, stop striving and let God do everything through you. Legalism is even a kind of spirituality, where you use conformity to external rules as your spirituality. There is a pneumatic spirituality, where the emphasis is all on the Holy Spirit working through you, usually miraculously. There is the spirituality of perfectionism, that teaches you reach communion with God through a complete cessation of sin, through reaching sinless perfection. There is a humanist version of spirituality, that teaches you commune with God through creation, and human works of art. There’s even a social justice version of spirituality, where works of mercy become our experience of God.

So how do we work through all these competing claims for how to live the Christian life? Is there a passage of Scripture which describes the essence of the Christian experience, or the lived spirituality of true Christians? I believe we have it in front of us in John 15:1-11.

The master-teacher, Jesus, has given us a picture of the Christian life that is hard to forget and easy to understand: The Vine and the branches. The actors in this image are three: God the Father, who is the vinedresser, Christ, who is the Vine, and believers in Christ, who are the branches.

The vinedresser has actions He takes toward the branches: He picks up the fruitless one, He prunes back the ones bearing fruit, and He plucks out those who are not in the vine altogether. The Father restores Christians who are fruitless, He trains and purifies those who are bearing fruit, and one day He will expose and judge those who had never been in Christ. Together with the actions of the branches, this produces fruit, some fruit, more fruit and much fruit. The goal of having a vine is fruit. So if the Vine is Christ, the fruit is Christlikeness: His nature and character and works fleshed out in believers, who are the branches.

Having seen what the Father does, we come to the actions of the branches. The actions of the branches are really what our Christian life is to be. Here is our spirituality. Should the branches cut themselves up, as in asceticism? Should they do nothing, as in quietism? Should they wait for miracle fruit to grow on them in an instant? Should they try to grow a new vine out of themselves as in legalism or perfectionism?

Jesus has one word to describe Christian spirituality. This is really the heart of this passage, which centres around this word abide, which is used eleven times in this section. So to really get to our main responsibility before God, we have to understand what Jesus means by abide. We need to know what it is, how it happens, and what it looks like when it’s happening. Here we can learn a true, biblical Christian spirituality. Here you can learn how to draw near to God, worship Him every day, and live as a Christian. The meaning, the medium, and the manifestation of abiding in Christ.

I. The Meaning of Abiding

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

This word abide is actually a very ordinary word in the NT. The word is used 120 times in the NT, sometimes translated abide, but also translated stay, remain, continue, wait, endure, dwell. The most basic idea of this word is to live or dwell in a place without leaving.

The English word abide is not a word we use a lot today; we use it most often when we speak of “abide by the laws”, or “abide by their decision.” But it is a little archaic. And that has led Christians to assume all sorts of meaning, mystical and otherwise into the word. But it is really an ordinary word which has the idea of staying, remaining, continuing. To understand a word, we must always examine it in context.

In our context, Jesus uses it to speak of how branches relate to the vine. Branches must stay, or remain connected to the vine, so that the vine’s life and sap flows into them. A branch that is not connected to the vine has no life, it will soon be a dead twig. You cannot break off a branch, put it in the ground, and expect grapes to grow on it. It is totally dependent on the Vine.

But think this connection between Vine and branch. It’s not connected to the branch like Lego bricks are connected, where you can connect them, and pull them apart. No, a branch is a living, extension of the vine, an organic growth out of the vine. The branch is in the vine, but the vine is in the branch.

Now this image has one word written all over it: union. When two things are united, they no longer have independent identity. Marriage is union of two people, who are no longer legally, socially, or even spiritually single. They are, in God’s eyes, one flesh. The United Kingdom is a union of four nations that do not have independent political status. When two hydrogen atoms form a union with an oxygen atom, the resulting union is a water molecule. And the branches are in union with the Vine.

Now in the Bible, one of the most important doctrines is the doctrine of union with Christ. Every time you read that phrase “in Christ” in the New Testament, you’re reading about union with Christ.

In short, this means that you are in Christ and Christ is in you. You are joined to Him, in deeper, more profound ways than we realise. His life, His standing in Heaven, His righteousness becomes yours. Furthermore, He comes to reside in you by His Spirit, and His nature and life, and even His communion with the Father is now in you.

This union is a mutual indwelling. Did you see how often Jesus mentions this two-way reciprocal abiding? (4) Abide in Me, and I in you; (5) He who abides in Me, and I in him; (7) If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you; (9) abide in My love, My joy may abide in you.

This union happens in two ways. The first way is a one-time, once-for-all joining with Christ. Your whole position with respect to God changes. You are no longer an enemy, a rebel, but you are in Christ, born again, justified, forgiven, made a new creature in Him. This union happens on that day when you repent and believe on Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. When you turn from being an independent branch, trying to have its own life and its own fruit, and you place your trust, your dependence and hope on Christ alone. On that day, an internal miracle takes place. You are joined to the Vine that is Christ. You are in Him, and He is now in you by His Spirit.

This is a living union, a loving union, and a lasting union.

That’s the first way we abide: by receiving Jesus Christ as Saviour, receiving eternal life. Remember the words at the beginning of the book? But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: (John 1:12)

If one does not have this union, then verse 6 describes his eventual fate: “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”

This union has a second, ongoing aspect. Practical union. This is not being saved, being justified, or born from above. This is spiritual growth, becoming like Christ, sanctification. It is not enough that the branch be physically connected to the vine. There must be traffic between branch and vine, the interchange of life, the pulsing flow of life. The second way we abide is continuing this union practically.

Without that, Jesus said, you cannot bear fruit, you cannot bear grapes unless there is first an actual, positional connection, and secondly, a living interchange of life. Put simply, the Christian is meant to live in communion with Christ, in fellowship, in a life of practical union, lived-out oneness.

A couple decides to get married. They make vows, sign papers, and live together as man and wife. That’s their positional union. As long as they remain married, they are abiding in that marriage.

But for them to truly abide with each other, means not just to be married on paper, but to live in each other’s presence, to talk, to love, to laugh, to live with one another. There is not only formal union, there is communion. When a couple is in love, there is something going on between them. You can tell. In marriage counselling, you can tell a lot of what is going on in the marriage by what’s going on between them: the non-verbal, the looks. Yes, they have a positional union, but what I’m witnessing is the practical union.

This is the meaning of abide: remain in union. Christ is the Vine, we are branches. Be united to Christ, by getting in the Vine, then continue that union by the living sap flowing in them from the Vine.

But that leads to the next question. Branches have sap drawn up from the roots of the Vine that is their living union with the vine. What is that sap, the living liquid for Christians? What is the medium, or channel, or means by which we commune with Christ?

II. The Medium of Abiding

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you.

Here Jesus tells us very clearly that the medium of exchange in abiding is this: we are in Him, and His Words are in us.

We are placed into Christ positionally, and what then is placed into us? His Word. Now here is a theme we have already seen in our study of chapter 14. The indwelling Word, inseparable from the indwelling Spirit, is the way we know and experience Christ.

The Christian life is not lived with Jesus physically in front of us. Instead, He has sent a Comforter, an Advocate, a Helper to indwell us. The Holy Spirit indwells us when we come into union with Christ.

But the Spirit coming in to us is not a ghostly, unknowable indwelling, as if He is silently haunting the Temple of our body. No, He is the Spirit of Christ the Living Word.

And He comes in to commune with us, to speak to us as a Person, rationally, mind to mind. So when He comes in, He comes in and plants within us a new nature that feeds on, and lives on the Word of God. That’s the same as saying, He has implanted the Word in you. In fact, the Word of God is part of how this comes about: You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, (1 Peter 1:23)

The same Spirit who empowered the Incarnate Word on earth, and breathed out the inspired Word, He teaches, convicts, leads and illuminates the indwelling Word, the implanted Word in our souls. He speaks, not new revelation, but the given revelation of Scripture. He speaks this to our souls.

Remember, we’ve already seen that having someone’s words is the next best thing to having them with you. And in the case of the Bible, the words have incipient life and power, and when taken up by the living Spirit of God, this is how communion takes place. You’re letting God’s thoughts mingle with your thoughts. You’re thinking God’s thoughts by thinking His Word.

And therein lies our fellowship with Christ, our practical union, our sanctification. The Spirit and the Word is like the living sap flowing from roots inside the branches. It is as you take in and meditate on Scripture’s stories, poetry, prophecies, parables, commands, promises, proverbs, that you are dwelling inside the mind of Christ, the very thoughts of God.

What that tells us is that the bigger and better the connection and flow of sap, the better the fruit will be. And in the same way, the better and stronger your intake of God’s Word, the greater the potential for the fruit of Christlikeness.

If you’re in the spiritual doctor’s rooms, and he says, “What’s wrong?” And you say, “I feel spiritually dry, I don’t pray much, my zeal for God is really low, I don’t witness much.”

His first question to you is this, “How’s your intake of God’s Word? Are you taking it in daily? Are you taking it in every time it is preached at your local church? Are you studying it? Are you reading books that help you understand it? Are you memorising it?”

A. W. Tozer said, “The great need of the hour among spiritually hungry persons is twofold: First, to know the Scriptures, …; the second, to be enlightened by the Spirit, apart from whom the Scriptures will not be understood.”

Are you practically being in union with Christ by taking in His Word and meditating on it?

Let’s return to our married couple. How would a marriage counsellor judge the state of a couple’s marriage? He won’t ask to see their marriage certificate. He will judge the state of their marriage by how much they communicate, and what kind of communication. Or to put it another way: their words to each other. Do they want each other’s words? Do they receive them with attentive, faithful love?

The meaning of abiding is union. The medium of abiding is the indwelling Word of God mixed with faith. But perhaps this still seems theoretical and abstract. Maybe you say, I do read the Bible, I do come to church. What does it really look like when you are abiding in Christ? What’s actually going on inside you, and how does it manifest on the outside? Jesus makes it even clearer for us.

III. The Manifestation of Abiding

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

What does it look like if we abide? There are two “if” statements here, two conditionals that tell you how you will know you are abiding. Verse 7 and Verse 10.

Verse 7 tells us if we abide in Him, then we will pray, and it will be answered. Verse 9-10 tells if we keep His commandments, then we are abiding in Him, in His love.

It seems that when you abide in Christ, the experience is prayers, and keeping commandments. You pray, and you obey. Living prayer; loving obedience. You pray to Him, and you please Him. You communicate, and you conform. This is communing with Christ, practical union.

Now why these two? Well, think about it. Picture the Word of God flowing, saturating your mind. What will happen? First, you begin turning those thoughts into prayers. What is prayer? Prayer is our desires. If the Word of Christ is dwelling richly in you, whose desires are you now developing? Christ’s desires. That’s what it means to pray in His name. You pray as He would.

But if your thoughts are filled with Scripture, then it begins to change your actions. Whose deeds, whose works do you now want to do? Just as the Son loves the Father and always does what pleases Him, and does His works, so now you are changed to do what pleases Christ, His works. You obey as He would.

Now if you take new desires, and new deeds, that adds up to new character, a new life. You are becoming like Christ. Since the true vine is Christ, and we are His branches, His life flowing through us manifests in desires and deeds like Christ’s.

This is exactly what Paul said would happen if we work out, flesh out our new life, our salvation. He said on Philippians 2 that we can do this because “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13) He works in us to will – that’s desires, and to do – that’s deeds.

So why doesn’t this happen automatically to every Christian who reads the Bible or listens to sermons?

But you have to do more than take the Bible in like a data-capturer. For there to be communion, you need to mix something with this Scripture you’re taking in.

For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. (Hebrews 4:2)

By faith, we mean the eager trust that believes and depends on God’s Words as truth and life. Here’s what that looks like. The believers at Thessalonica, Paul said, when they received the word of God which they heard from Paul, they “welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

You welcome His words to be front and centre in your mind. Humble, loving faith is the spark that the Holy Spirit turns the gathered firewood of the Word into a blazing fire of warmth in your heart. Scripture + faith = the Spirit illuminating the Word and communing with Christ. It is the conscious choice to surrender your thoughts to His thoughts, to let His mind indwell your mind. That’s what makes the difference. You love His words, you open the door of your heart to them. You become a welcoming host to the Word.

This doesn’t mean non-stop thinking about the Bible.

F. B. Meyer: “Abiding in Christ does not mean that you must always be thinking about Christ. You are in a house, abiding in its enclosure or beneath its shelter, though you are not always thinking about the house itself. But you always know when you leave it… So we may not always be sensible of the revealed presence of Jesus; we may be occupied with many things of necessary duty—but as soon as the heart is disengaged it will become aware that He has been standing near all the while.”

In other words, internalise the Word deeply, and then mix it with faith that is seeking His mind, His thoughts, His presence. You know it is happening when it turns into prayer to Him, and obedience of Him.

Now what is the result of this life of practical union with Christ through His Spirit and Word? Verse 11 tells us. It is the very joy of Christ. This is not a heavy, painful life. Instead, it is a life with answered prayer, and empowered obedience. It is a life of love.

So, you can sit on a pole for 36 years, but you won’t have this joy. You can try for sinless perfection by your own strength, and try to keep rules, and be fastidious, but you’ll fail. You can become passive, doing nothing and waiting for God to do it all, and you will not produce fruit. You can pray for miracles, but you’ll be in the same place. You can try mysticism, or social justice, or humanism, but you’ll be disappointed.

Biblical spirituality is based on union with Christ through His Spirit and Word. First, place your faith in Christ to abide in the Vine positionally. Second, keep placing your faith in the truth of God’s Word, to abide practically. Take in the Word, and then mix it with loving faith, and you will be abiding in His love in fullness of joy.